JODI PROZNICK

Biography

Juno nominated bassist, composer, bandleader and educator Jodi Proznick has earned a reputation as one of Canada's finest jazz artists. She was the winner of numerous National Jazz Awards including Bassist of the Year in ’08 and’09. Her group ‘The Jodi Proznick Quartet’ was awarded the Acoustic Group of the Year and Album of the Year in ‘08 and the ‘Galaxie Rising Star’ of the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in ‘00.

As a composer, bassist and arranger, she has been a featured performer on over 40 albums and has composed original works for her own quartet as well as for artists such as Seamus Blake, Joel Haynes, Cory Weeds and Triology featuring Bill Coon and Miles Black. Her songs can be heard regularly on jazz radio stations all over the world. She’s also making a name for herself as a producer, her track record including her quartet’s album Foundations, Jaclyn Guillou’s 2015 release This Bitter Earth, and her quartet’s forthcoming release Sun Songs, slated for release in January 2018 on the Cellar Live label.

In addition to leading her own group, Jodi has performed with many of Canada's top jazz musicians, including PJ Perry, Don Thompson, Kirk MacDonald, Hugh Fraser, Oliver Gannon, Dee Daniels, Phil Dwyer and Laila Biali. She is regularly in demand to perform and record with visiting jazz artists such as Michael Buble, Byron Stripling, Michael Feinstein, David "Fathead" Newman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Ed Thigpen, Jeff Hamilton, Peter Bernstein, Charles McPherson, Seamus Blake, George Coleman, Sheila Jordan, Mark Murphy, Harold Mabern, Eric Alexander, Lewis Nash and many others. In addition to recording her own Juno nominated CD as a leader, Jodi has been featured on over 30 recordings as a sideman.

Jodi began playing bass at the age of 13 under the direction of her father David, an award winning music educator. In ‘93, Jodi received the General Motors Award of Excellence as one of the top young musicians at Musicfest Canada and then went on to receive a scholarship to study bass at McGill University in Montreal. After graduating, Jodi played with many of the top musicians in Montreal such as Christine Jensen, Andre White, Greg Clayton and many others. She was awarded the IAJE Sisters in Jazz award in ‘98 as one of the best up and coming female jazz musicians.

Jodi moved to Vancouver in ‘00, where she now lives with her husband and collaborator, pianist Tilden Webb, and young son Tristan. Her personal highlights include opening for Oscar Peterson in 2004, performing as a featured soloist with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and recording numerous times for CBC Radio. Another highlight was when Jodi was asked to be the bassist featured in the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Winter Games closing ceremonies and soundtrack.

Jodi’s deep passion for education led her to pursue a Masters Degree in Education from Simon Fraser University. She is on faculty at the VSO School of Music, Capilano University and Kwantlen Polytechnic University and has been a guest adjudicator and clinician at many festivals, colleges, universities and conferences across Canada and the US.

She has been described as "... armed with an arsenal of talent sure to develop recognition as one of the finest bassist in the jazz world today” (Ejazznews), "... (playing with) an infectiously in-the-pocket sense of groove" (Cadence Magazine), "... a jazz bassist with great time and a rock-solid sound " (Katie Malloch, CBC Radio), “ a great player, who plays with intoxicating passion." (RivitingRiff.com) and “a wonderful bassist who really digs in and plays from the heart. When you hear Jodi you don't hear gender.” (David Fathead Newman - Coda Magazine interview)

Great music happens when the head and the feet meet in the heart.

I see teaching as an extension of my artistic work. I believe that all of life is an artistic statement – from the colors you choose to wear, the tone of your voice during conversation, the way you walk down the street, the words you choose to use when writing and the artwork you create.

I believe that every human on the planet is an artist. My role as an artist/mentor is to remind students that they are capable of great beauty. I invite back them back to a way of being that deeply values inquiry, questioning, dialogue and play. When you approach sound the same way a painter approaches paint, magic can happen at any level and at any age.

I celebrate the student like a gardener celebrates the beautiful flower as it grows before her.

You come out of the womb singing a song. You have a heartbeat that carries the rhythm of life. Music is your birthright.

Jodi has given clinics/workshops at the following universities and colleges:

Western Washington University
Capilano University
Brandon University
University of Saskatchewan
McGill University
Saint Francis Xavier University
Western Michigan University
Kwantlen Polytechnic University
University of British Columbia, Education Faculty

Early Childhood Music

This is a space to celebrate music, art, literature and family. I am currently on faculty at the Arbutus Club in Vancouver. I draw from Orff, Kodaly and Reggio Emilia philosophies of education. My philosophy is centred around the idea that all people are musical – if you have a heartbeat, you have rhythm, if you can make sound with your voice, you have a song.

“The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain… Music expresses only the quintessence of life and of its events, never these themselves.”

~ Oliver Sacks from Musicophelia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Private Study

Jodi is currently accepting private bass and jazz theory students. Please contact Jodi for more information.